Mahler, who conceived his symphonies in cosmic terms, imagined his Eighth Symphony as depicting the revolutions of planets in a universe vibrating with sound. Cultish in its vastness, it always intimates some grand, symbolic gesture on the part of its performers; the Mahler in Manchester series presented it as emblematic of the collaborative nature of the series as a whole. The Hallé and BBC Philharmonic joined forces, with Mark Elder conducting and the BBCPO's Yuri Torchinsky acting as leader. The vast choruses – the Hallé Choir, Youth Choir and Children's Choir, together with the CBSO Chorus – occupied tiered seats that seemed to ascend heavenwards.

The work suits Elder. He understands the marshalling of large forces and the need for sensibility rather than recklessness. He took the first movement slower than usual in an attempt to untangle its overcomplex counterpoint, while the second half was operatic in its urgency. The choral singing was momentous, the soloists exemplary and the orchestral sound strikingly clear – entirely appropriate to a work that envisions mystic experience in terms of crystalline sonorities rather than haze or vagueness. The only faults were Mahler's: no conductor can disguise the work's lack of stylistic unity or the sexism behind the underlying concept of the "eternal feminine".

This is the only symphony in the Manchester cycle not to be accompanied by a commissioned companion piece. In its place, Olivier Latry, organist of Notre Dame in Paris, improvised on the plainchant Veni, Creator Spiritus that triggered the symphony's first movement, subjecting it to transformations both sensuous and violent before closing in a mood of extraordinary exaltation.